Memorials: Remembrances of War

Many of the iconic sites located in Washington, D.C. commemorate America’s experience of military conflict at home and abroad.  The west end of the National Mall consists almost entirely of memorials dedicated to those who served their country in Europe or Asia during the 20th century.  Yet these were not the first monuments to war in D.C.  Soon after the conclusion of the Civil War, statues of individual military commanders, astride a horse and placed atop a pedestal, began to dot the many squares and circles located throughout the city.  What changed between the 19th-century and the 21st that prompted memorial design to shift, the heroic equestrian statue gradually yielding to the stark simplicity of a wall engraved with names?  This walking tour reveals how, where and why the shift occurred by visiting sites such as

• an equestrian statue of Major General Andrew Jackson;
• a monument to a World War I military division; 
• the District of Columbia War Memorial;
• the Vietnam Veterans Memorial;
• the Lincoln Memorial.

Led by Paul

Discover more great D.C. walking tour adventures: The Imprint of World War I and Memorials: The Journey to Civil Rights